Rain Man
by Frohike
Summary: Mulder, as seen through the eyes of outside observer.


Title: Rain Man  
Author: Frohike  
Email: frohike51@aol.com  
Rating: G  
Category: Character observation? You tell me how to   
classify this one.  
Distribution: Anywhere you want. Just keep my name and   
email addy attached. Let me know where you put it, so I can   
come and visit sometime.  
Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully don't belong to me. Big   
surprise. The third person POV however, is mine.  
Spoilers: A small one for Requiem, but honestly, if you   
haven't heard this much about the episode, you must have   
been hiding under a rock for the last few months.   
  
A quick word of thanks. Mim, you're always there. That's   
what touchstones are for, isn't it? Jeri, thanks for putting   
down your own binoculars and taking the time to read this for   
me. *g*  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
I'm not a voyeur. My kicks are not derived by staring through   
binoculars into the windows and lives of other people. In fact,   
until I moved to Arlington, I'd never even thought of intruding   
on the privacy of another. It happened by accident, really.  
  
You'll have to excuse me if I'm not terribly specific with dates,   
time never meant a whole lot to me; still doesn't. I do know   
that I first saw him in late August of 1994. That's when I   
moved into the apartment building across the street from his.   
I'd spent the entire day unpacking, attempting to make this   
place look like home. It was hotter than Hell outside, but I   
had the windows open and a fan blowing to try and air-out the   
place. The apartment had gone unrented for a number of   
months and, while the landlord swore it had been cleaned, you   
couldn't prove it by me. Anyway, the musty smell was more   
than my nose could handle, so I put up with the heat while I   
cleaned and unpacked.   
  
I was in the bedroom late that night, when I caught a whiff of   
ozone signaling the coming of rain. When the first few drops   
began to fall, I closed the bedroom window and walked out to   
shut the ones in the living room. The rain picked up faster   
than I'd anticipated, so by the time I reached the last window,   
the ledge and the floor underneath were soaked.   
Grabbing a towel, I mopped up the water, thankful that I'd   
decided not to put one of my small bookshelves there after all.   
I tossed the towel on the kitchen counter and turned off the   
lights. It was probably around midnight or so.   
  
Walking past the window, I paused to watch the rain. That's   
when I saw him. He was standing in front of his window,   
staring out into the night. I'm not sure what made me stay and   
watch him or what made me go to the closet a short time later   
to pull out my binoculars. Maybe it was the way he was   
standing, so still, like he was afraid to move or he might miss   
something. For over an hour he stood there, staring out   
through the rain. His hand crept up to his neck and he seemed   
to be fingering something. A necklace? I don't know; my   
binoculars are pretty good, but they're not quite that strong, so   
I had to rely on an educated guess. He looked so sad. No, sad   
isn't quite right. Lost, is a better word. The rain slowed, then   
stopped completely. As soon as no more water fell from the   
sky, he moved away from the window and out of my sight. I   
put my binocs down and, after waiting a little while longer to   
see if he would reappear, decided to go to bed. I remember   
wondering who it was that had hurt him so deeply, just before   
I fell asleep.  
  
In the next couple of months, I only saw him a few more   
times. Never on a clear night, only when the rain was falling.   
His face always looked the same, sad and lost. Oh, I looked   
for him from time to time when the moon was full or the night   
especially clear, but he never appeared. Not knowing who he   
was, I began to think of him as the Rain Man. OK, I know   
what you're thinking, but no, I'd never even seen that movie,   
and this man was certainly no idiot savant. Two, maybe three   
months after the first time I saw him, he appeared at the   
window, just before the rain started to fall. I expected to see   
the usual face, the usual hand touching the chain around his   
neck. He surprised me. Both hands reached out and pressed   
against the glass, his forehead resting on the pane between   
them. Then the most amazing thing happened. Well, it was   
amazing to me because I'd never seen him do it. He smiled.   
Not a big ear-to-ear smile, mind you, a simple turning up of   
the corners of his mouth. He stared for a little while, then   
closed his eyes, seemingly content to stand there and listen to   
sound of the rain gently beating against his window. He left   
before it stopped completely that night; one of the few times   
didn't wait for the sky to finish the job.  
  
The first time I saw him in daylight was probably close to a   
year after I moved in. I told you, I'm not big on invading other   
people's privacy, so I never made the effort to find out   
anything about the guy. He was the Rain Man and that was   
enough. I was on my way to work, when I saw them getting   
out of a car in front of his building. Yeah, that's right, them.   
He was with a small, redheaded woman. He had bandages on   
his face and she was helping him up the steps. They'd gone   
halfway when he stopped and said something to her. He   
pulled from her grasp and started back down the stairs.   
"Mulder." I heard her say. Mulder? What kind of name was   
that? "I just need to get the file, Scully," he answered. OK,   
Mulder and Scully? I went out on a limb and decided that   
these must be last names; I mean, what were the chances of   
two people with such awful first names meeting and hanging   
out with one another, right? So, now the Rain Man had a   
name. Mulder. I stored that away as I watched the door close   
behind them.  
  
Time passed. I watched him at night, standing at his rain-  
soaked window. Sometimes I caught him leaving for work in   
the morning now as well. Scully showed up at his place on a   
regular basis, but in spite of the closeness they seemed to   
share, I didn't get the feeling that there was anything going on   
between them. Can't put my finger on why, since he   
constantly had his hand glued to the small of her back and she   
was never more than a few inches away from his side, but   
something told me that the bond was one of trust and   
friendship, not one borne of the male/female thing. I could be   
wrong. Maybe they'd been boffing each other silly all that   
time, but I don't think so. I know they got around to it   
eventually, but I'll get to that later on.  
  
We went through a real dry period, much to my   
disappointment. No rain, meant no Rain Man...I mean,   
Mulder. One night, I looked out, hoping to see some trace of   
clouds in the sky. Sirens wailed, but nothing else. The noise   
grew louder, so, out of morbid curiosity, I waited to see if the   
emergency vehicles were coming down our street. An   
ambulance and a couple of police cruisers screeched to a halt   
in front of Mulder's building. My heart leapt into my throat   
and I glanced over at his window. The lights were on, but the   
shades were drawn, so I couldn't see inside. I watched, unable   
to move, praying that he wasn't the reason for the commotion.   
A stretcher was brought out of the building. The white sheet   
mounded high above the bed, telling me that the person   
underneath had been of considerable girth. I breathed a sigh   
of relief, not my Rain Man.   
  
A few nights later, still no rain in the forecast. I couldn't   
sleep, so I wandered the apartment, finally ending up in front   
of the window again. The nights had been cool, so I'd taken to   
leaving the windows open to help cut down on the electric bill.   
I leaned out and breathed in the night air. A popping sound   
startled me, then I saw a tall dark figure running between the   
buildings. At first, I thought it might have been him, but then   
I saw Scully half-carrying Mulder to her car. She put him in   
the back seat and drove off. I didn't see either of them again   
for a few weeks.  
  
Seems like I hardly saw him at all for the next year. Every so   
often, I'd look out and see him taping an x on his window.   
OK, so he's a little strange. I'm sure there must have been a   
purpose in this, but I never did figure it out. Maybe he had a   
superhero thing going on. I did notice that on the few times it   
did rain after he'd taped the window, he didn't show up, so I   
guess that x must have meant something. Seems like it   
showed up an awful lot. I began to find myself resenting the   
letter as a whole, to the point of frowning whenever I had need   
to write it down. OK, so maybe I'm a little strange.  
  
One night, during a particularly nasty storm, he came to the   
window. The rain was coming down so hard that I almost   
missed him standing there. If it hadn't been for a well-timed   
bolt of lightning, I might have gone to bed. There was   
something about the way he was standing there that night.   
Something about the single arm resting against the pane,   
supporting his head, that worried me. I stood and watched,   
waiting for the lightning to illuminate him. As the storm gave   
way to simple rainfall, I broke out my new, high-powered   
binocs and trained them on him. Yeah, I'd broken down and   
bought myself an expensive birthday present a few days   
earlier, finally admitting my obsession with Rain Man. As he   
came into focus, I could see that he'd been crying. What now,   
I wondered. For all the times I'd seen him staring out the   
window, this was the hardest to watch. He always seemed so   
strong to me, even through the sadness. Maybe he'd cried at   
the window before. Maybe this was just the first time I'd been   
able to look closely enough to see the tracks of his tears. I   
almost called the local oldies station to ask them to dedicate   
that Smokey Robinson song to him that night, but never made   
the call. I doubt he had the radio on anyway and he didn't   
strike me as the oldies type. Besides, if all the stars aligned   
and he was listening to the station at precisely the time the   
dedication was read...well, he probably wouldn't have   
appreciated the intent and I might have lost my rainy night   
trysts.  
  
Scully came over a little more often after that night. She   
didn't stay, I'm not implying that there was anything going on,   
but she did seem to be a more regular fixture around the place.   
I didn't know her, but it seemed to me that she'd lost a lot of   
weight, weight she didn't need to lose in the first place.   
Mulder seemed more protective of her as well. I can't explain   
it really. I don't mean that he overtly hovered over her or   
carried her up and down the stairs or anything like that. He   
just seemed to watch her more closely, usually when she   
wasn't paying attention.   
  
I can hear you now...you're saying wait a minute; this chick's   
not just watching him in the rain anymore. Guilty as charged.   
At this point I'd become a regular fixture around Rain Man's   
place myself. I had no designs on the man, don't get me   
wrong. No, really. I was just drawn to him like the proverbial   
moth to a flame, or is that lightning to a lightning rod, given   
the way we 'met'. He intrigued me; he gave me a reason to   
believe. Believe in what, I'm not entirely sure, that's just the   
feeling he gave me.   
  
In late September, my company sent me out of state to open a   
new branch. It was a big opportunity and one I would have   
welcomed, had it not meant three months away from home. I   
went, of course, but missed him terribly the whole time I was   
gone.  
  
I returned on Christmas Eve. One of the ladies at the new   
office had offered me a place to be for Christmas, but I lied   
and said that I was expected at my mother's house. Yeah,   
right. My mother hadn't spent a holiday, birthday, any day   
with me in over ten years. No, I wanted to be home to spend   
Christmas Eve with him. I prayed for rain the entire flight, but   
landed in crisp, clear conditions. Just my luck. When I got   
home, I could see the light of the television flickering in his   
apartment. I turned on the radio and sat in front of the   
window, waiting to see if he would join me. I must have   
nodded off for a while, because it was sometime between five   
and six when I realized the light was on in his apartment.   
They moved into view, sitting down on his couch together. I   
grabbed the binoculars and focused in on them as they opened   
their presents to one another. He turned toward her after   
opening his, so I never did see what he'd gotten; her either for   
that matter, but I wasn't really paying attention. He was   
smiling you see. When Rain Man smiles, everything else   
disappears.  
  
The next couple of years went on in pretty much the same   
way. There were good times and sad times. Nights when the   
rain lasted for hours and I found myself telling him my life   
story. Nights when I started to believe he was actually   
listening. God, I sound so pathetic. I dated, had a relationship   
here and there, so I did have a life outside of my obsession.   
When all was said and done though, I couldn't find anyone to   
take me away from my Rain Man. I still didn't desire him, not   
in the way you're thinking anyway. Never seriously   
considered making myself known to him. I needed the   
illusion, not the man himself. He was my constant, my reason   
to believe. Sure, I've said that before, but that's really the way   
it was and once you've figured it out, why bother to look for   
other ways to describe what you feel?  
  
Things took a dramatic change earlier this year. Remember   
that thing I said I'd get to eventually? Well, this is it. Mulder   
came home after being gone for a few days. I watched him   
unpack his things, wondering what adventures he'd found on   
his trip. Later that night, Scully showed up. Like I said, she'd   
been regular around his place for a long time, so I didn't think   
anything of it. He looked concerned and brought her a mug of   
something to drink. They sat on the couch and talked for a   
long time. She fell asleep. I don't think he realized it right   
away, because he just kept right on talking. When he saw that   
she'd drifted off, he got up, wrapped a blanket around her and   
kissed her on the forehead, before going to bed himself. I   
smiled. This was the first time I'd seen any real display of   
affection, not counting the hand on the back thing he always   
did. Now, I'm not saying that anything beyond a kiss   
happened that night, but I know something definitely   
happened not long after.  
  
I got in, just ahead of the rain that night. We'd had to redo the   
inventory when a huge screw up was found in the paperwork.   
I was exhausted, but the boss had given me the next day off to   
make up for having to put in all those extra hours. In spite of   
the disgusting time of night, it was after two in case you're   
interested, and in spite of the fact that my eyelids kept   
slamming shut on me as I tried to unlock my front door, I   
found myself drawn to the window to look for him. It was   
raining after all, so I had to look. Sure enough, he was there.   
I rubbed my eyes and willed them to stay open for a few more   
minutes, as I reached for the binocs. When both the lenses   
and my eyes focused, I saw that my Rain Man was shirtless   
and wearing only a pair of black boxers. Now, I still had no   
big desire to jump the guy, but I will admit that the sight of   
him that night was more than a little arousing. I'm only   
human. I watched him standing there, looking at peace with   
the world, when two small arms slid around his waist. I knew   
who it was before I even raised the binoculars to her face.   
Hey, shut up! I said I was only human. Scully was there,   
smiling up at him, wearing that blue dress shirt he was so fond   
of. He pulled her even closer and they stood there, looking at   
the rain, together.  
  
Over the next few weeks, I rarely saw them apart. He would   
disappear on the weekends, presumably to spend them at her   
place, but they stayed at his place during the week. Maybe he   
lives closer to their office? After all these years, I still don't   
know what they do, but I do know that whatever it is, they're   
in it together. I'm guessing it's government work. I mean, they   
dress like Feds and if it walks like a duck and talks like a   
duck...I could be wrong; wouldn't be the first time, but in this   
case, I don't think so.  
  
Two weeks ago, it rained for the first time in quite a while. I   
sat by the window and waited. The light was on in the   
apartment, but he didn't show up. A strange little man looked   
out briefly, before shutting off the light. At first I thought that   
maybe Rain Man had moved out without my knowing about it.   
Then I saw the man leave the apartment. I recognized him   
when a longhaired, blonde guy got out of the van to ask him a   
question. These guys showed up every so often; must be   
friends of his. I wondered where he was and why they were   
there without him.   
  
The rain lasted for days. Each night I sat and waited, each   
night no Rain Man appeared in the window. I found myself   
becoming a little more depressed with each no show.  
  
Last night, the rain started again. Hoping against hope, I   
rushed home and sat by the window, not bothering to change   
out of my wet clothes. The desk light came on and I pressed   
my head against the glass. Please, please, please, I chanted in   
my head. I could see a figure coming toward the window   
slowly. Scully came into view. I was disappointed at first, but   
soon rationalized that if she was there, he'd be along shortly. I   
waited, she waited, he didn't appear. Her head dropped to the   
glass. I picked up the binoculars too get a better look. Her   
shoulders were shaking and tears were streaming down her   
cheeks. She looked like Mulder had looked on that first night,   
sad and lost. Oh my God, no. Where is he? What's happened   
to my Rain Man? Please don't tell me he's gone. He can't be   
gone. She needs him. I need him. Oh God, Rain Man, please   
come home to us.   



End file.
